Guilty plea after heroin bust

Published 10:02 pm Thursday, July 30, 2015

A Suffolk woman has pleaded guilty to assisting in what’s termed a “massive heroin trafficking operation” from her Camellia Drive home.

Latina Latrice Jackson, 27, along with three others from Portsmouth and Chesapeake, pleaded guilty to their charges this week. She is charged with maintaining a drug-involved residence.

Jackson lived at 6020 Camellia Drive, Apartment B, according to court records.

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According to court documents, Jackson was in a relationship with the leader of the heroin trafficking operation, 35-year-old Alonzo Outten, of Chesapeake.

From May to July of this year, she allowed Outten to use her apartment and her vehicle to support his operation, according to the court documents.

He kept chunks of raw heroin in her apartment, broke it down, cut it to expand its volume and placed it into individual gel caps on her dinner table.

Jackson also allowed Outten to use her vehicle to collect payments for the heroin and sometimes traveled with him as he did so, according to the court documents.

Outten paid Jackson about $400 a month for the use of her apartment and vehicle, and she used the money to help pay bills, the documents state.

In the early morning hours of July 14, a search warrant was executed on Jackson’s apartment as well as 13 other properties in Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk. The raid involved more than 250 law enforcement officers from three states and Washington, D.C.

According to the court documents, at least five children were present, along with Jackson, when the search warrant was served. Law enforcement officials recovered a diaper bag that contained two digital scales, a coffee grinder used to cut heroin, straight razors, hundreds of gel caps and a chemical agent used to cut heroin for street-level distribution.

Jackson had previously been in a relationship with another drug distributor and managed the financial operations for his operation, according to the court documents.

All told, Outten’s organization managed the manufacture and distribution of between 30 and 90 kilograms of heroin from November 2013 to July 2015. That amount is worth about $1.5 million to $4.5 million. Outten managed six mid-level drug operatives, who in turn managed about a dozen other individuals who facilitated the trafficking and distribution of cocaine.

Sentencing for Jackson is set for Oct. 30.

Besides Alonzo Outten, others arrested include Jermaine Jones, 38, of Portsmouth, and Garnett Brown, 34, of Chesapeake. Outten faces at least 20 years in prison, with a maximum life sentence.